Natural science physics contains in itself synthetical judgments a priori, as principles. ... Space then is a necessary representation a priori, which serves for the foundation of all external intuitions.
Immanuel KantHere I shall add that the concept of change, and with it the concept of motion, as change of place, is possible only through and in the representation of time. & Motion, for example, presupposes the perception of something movable. But space considered in itself contains nothing movable; consequently motion must be something which is found in space only through experience -in other words, is an empirical datum.
Immanuel KantThis can never become popular, and, indeed, has no occasion to be so; for fine-spun arguments in favour of useful truths make just as little impression on the public mind as the equally subtle objections brought against these truths. On the other hand, since both inevitably force themselves on every man who rises to the height of speculation, it becomes the manifest duty of the schools to enter upon a thorough investigation of the rights of speculative reason, and thus to prevent the scandal which metaphysical controversies are sure, sooner or later, to cause even to the masses.
Immanuel KantEvery man is to be respected as an absolute end in himself; and it is a crime against the dignity that belongs to him as a human being, to use him as a mere means for some external purpose.
Immanuel KantPhysicians think they are doing something for you by labeling what you have as a disease
Immanuel KantUpon the solution of this problem, or upon sufficient proof of the impossibility of synthetical knowledge a priori, depends the existence or downfall of metaphysics.
Immanuel KantWe ourselves introduce that order and regularity in the appearance which we entitle "nature". We could never find them in appearances had we not ourselves, by the nature of our own mind, originally set them there.
Immanuel KantThe science of mathematics presents the most brilliant example of how pure reason may successfully enlarge its domain without the aid of experience
Immanuel KantIt is difficult for the isolated individual to work himself out of the immaturity which has become almost natural for him.
Immanuel KantSuicide is not abominable because God prohibits it; God prohibits it because it is abominable.
Immanuel KantThere will always be some people who think for themselves, even among the self-appointed guardians of the great mass who, after having thrown off the yoke of immaturity themselves, will spread about them the spirit of a reasonable estimate of their own value and of the need for every man to think for himself.
Immanuel KantTo be beneficent when we can is a duty; and besides this, there are many minds so sympathetically constituted that, without any other motive of vanity or self-interest, they find a pleasure in spreading joy around them, and can take delight in the satisfaction of others so far as it is their own work. But I maintain that in such a case an action of this kind, however proper, however amiable it may be, has nevertheless no true moral worth, but is on a level with other inclinations. . . . For the maxim lacks the moral import, namely, that such actions be done from duty, not from inclination.
Immanuel KantImagination is a powerful agent for creating, as it were, a second nature out of the material supplied to it by actual nature.
Immanuel KantFreedom is the alone unoriginated birthright of man, and belongs to him by force of his humanity.
Immanuel KantIt is not necessary that whilst I live I live happily; but it is necessary that so long as I live I should live honourably.
Immanuel KantWhen a thoughtful human being has overcome incentives to vice and is aware of having done his bitter duty, he finds himself in a state that could be called happiness, a state of contentment and peace of mind in which virtue is its own reward.
Immanuel KantHow then is perfection to be sought? Wherein lies our hope? In education, and in nothing else.
Immanuel KantIf you punish a child for being naughty, and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and finds that goodness is not always rewarded, nor wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right or wrong according as he finds advantage to himself.
Immanuel KantWhy were a few, or a single one, made at all, if only to exist in order to be made eternally miserable, which is infinitely worse than non-existence?
Immanuel KantA single line in the Bible has consoled me more than all the books I ever read besides.
Immanuel KantIn law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.
Immanuel KantArt does not want the representation of a beautiful thing, but the representation of something beautiful.
Immanuel KantIt is presumed that there exists a great unity in nature, in respect of the adequacy of a single cause to account for many different kinds of consequences.
Immanuel KantIf a man is often the subject of conversation he soon becomes the subject of criticism.
Immanuel KantThe desire which a man has for a woman is not directed towards her because she is a human being, but because she is a woman ; that she is a human being is of no concern to the man; only her sex is the object of his desires.
Immanuel KantParents usually educate their children merely in such a manner than however bad the world may be, they may adapt themselves to its present conditions. But they ought to give them an education so much better than this, that a better condition of things may thereby be brought about by the future.
Immanuel KantThe busier we are, the more acutely we feel that we live, the more conscious we are of life.
Immanuel KantEven the song of birds, which we can bring under no musical rule, seems to have more freedom, and therefore more for taste, than a song of a human being which is produced in accordance with all the rules of music; for we very much sooner weary of the latter, if it is repeated often and at length. Here, however, we probably confuse our participation in the mirth of a little creature that we love, with the beauty of its song; for if this were exactly imitated by man (as sometimes the notes of the nightingale are) it would seem to our ear quite devoid of taste.
Immanuel KantThe ideal of the supreme being is nothing but a regulative principle of reason which directs us to look upon all connection in the world as if it originated from an all-sufficient necessary cause.
Immanuel KantI assert that, in any particular natural science, one encounters genuine scientific substance only to the extent that mathematics is present.
Immanuel Kant